Op/Ed

Rubio Wimps Out on Town Halls: Surprised?

Posted
March 2, 2017 04:30 am | Op-Ed

By Joe Henderson

As we saw during the last campaign, Marco Rubio can
be awfully good at not showing up. His latest no-show
has nothing to do with his attendance in the U.S.
Senate, though. Now, he doesn’t want to show up at town
hall meetings because people might be rude.

“They’re not town halls anymore, and I wish they were
because I enjoy that process very much, going back to my
time as speaker of the house. I hosted over a hundred
idea (meetings) around the state,” he said in an
interview with CBS4 in Miami.

“But the problem now is – and it’s all in writing,
I’m not making this up – what they want is for me to
organize a public forum. They then organize three, four,
five, six hundred liberal activists in the two counties
or wherever I am in the state.”

No, he isn’t making it up.

He is, however, wimping out.

Are we surprised?

Yes, those forums do offer those pesky Florida
liberals a rare opportunity to remind Republicans that a
whole lot of people want their representatives to
protect health care coverage.

This is not some political talking point, either. For
these folks, it’s emotional and personal, so they do
heckle, they shout, they boo and they are loud.

That bothers Florida’s very junior U.S. senator
– although it didn’t bother him in 2010 when he was
swept in by the tea party wave that wrote the book on
heckling, shouting, booing and doing that at high
volume.

As a first-time senate candidate, it was OK to be
supported by disruptors. Those rallies took place around
the country, organized at the grassroots level through
websites like the Tea Party Patriots. The plan was to
put the “riot” in patriot.

It worked. Rubio was elected.

Facing angry constituents didn’t stop U.S. Rep. Gus
Bilirakis from showing up recently at multiple Pasco
County meetings, nor has it stopped many of Rubio’s
house and senate colleagues from facing the 50 percent
of the country that doesn’t agree with them.

But not Rubio. Change of heart, I guess, after an
opposition group now called Indivisible, which supports
Democrats, copied those tea party guerilla tactics. The
group has a game plan called “A Practical Guide for
Resisting the Trump Agenda.” It’s available on the
internet for all to see.

In his interview, Rubio said, “They then, according
to the document, they get there early and take up all
the front seats. They spread themselves out. They cheer
when the questions are asked. They are instructed to boo
no matter what answer I give.

“They’re instructed to interrupt me if I go too long
and start chanting things. Then, at the end, they’re
instructed not to give up their microphone when asked.
It’s all in writing in this Indivisible document.”

That’s sort of true, but also sort of not.

Indivisible supporters are indeed told to get there
early, sit in the front, spread out. They also are
instructed to “be polite but persistent, and demand real
answers.”

It adds, “MoCs (members of Congress) are very good at
deflecting or dodging questions they don’t want to
answer. If the MoC dodges, ask a follow-up. If they
aren’t giving you real answers, then call them out for
it. Other group members around the room should amplify
by either booing the congressman or applauding you.”

Rubio is awfully good at deflecting and dodging. He
gets into trouble when strays from the talking point. In
a friendly town hall, that’s OK. In a hostile setting,
he might get exposed (further) as a lightweight or, as
then-candidate Donald Trump liked to call him, “Little
Marco.”

CBS4 host Jim DeFede started to ask, “So you don’t
believe these are real …”

“They’re real people,” Rubio quickly said. “They’re
real liberal activists and I respect their right to do
it, but it’s not a productive exercise. It’s all
designed to have news coverage at night saying, ‘Look at
all these angry people screaming at their senator.’”

So instead the story becomes, look how their senator
runs and hides.

Yeah, that plays well.

---------------

Joe Henderson had a 45-year career in
newspapers, including the last nearly 42 years at The
Tampa Tribune. Mr. Henderson has numerous local, state and
national writing awards. He has been married to his
wife, Elaine, for nearly 35 years, and has two grown
sons.
Column courtesy of Florida Politics.

Graphic added by the Observer

This piece was reprinted by the Columbia County Observer
with permission or license.